I think I may go into the Spy business..., August 6,2012

Hey Fam!!!!!!!

I was excited to get your e-mail Mom! I am so glad that Derek had a good birthday. I need to find something really cool here for him but it may be belated. So its exciting that you all have been getting a lot of rain in Florida and I hope that Utah gets its act together and starts to rain soon. I am sorry the zucchini died again, that is really kind of funny but sad at the same time. The more time I spend out here in the mission field the more I notice how weird I am getting. My companion and I talk about the strangest things and we talk about how strange things are here in Argentina but by the time we get home we will think that everything in the US is weird. I laugh at hna. Tourtillott so much because she literally has forgotten how a lot of things are in the US. I will have to make a list and tell you about them all next week.

So this week has been interesting but we have gotten a lot done. We having be doing a lot of contacting and we have had some great lessons with people. I love being a missionary because I get hear some many cool stories from people about their experiences with God or with the Holy Ghost. And when we talk to people. sometime they tell us that they had been praying for help and then we have showed up at their door. I love the way that I have seen Heavenly Father working with people here. We have been teaching this man and he knows that the church is true and he believes in the Book of Mormon and everything but he just doesn´t understand why he just can´t live his life as a good person. Its so frustrating because I know how much the gospel can bless his life.

We also have this inverstigator whose name is Annibal and he has a date for September first to get baptized. He is really awesome! He loves Everything about the gospel but the hard thing for him to do is to come to church. He came last week but he was sick yesterday and so he was able to come. We are really working with him right now to help him understand the importance of coming to church. I know that it will click for him soon and I know that it will really help him if we get him involved with some of the members so that they can encourage him as well. I am really excited for him and he is really a very amazing man.

So on Saturday we had a very interesting experience. We had knocked into this women the previous week and se really like the first lesson so we went back to teach her. She let us in and right away she started to tell us about how she had been in an accident a few years ago and she was in the hospital forever because she had a big hole in her stomach that wouldn´t close up and now she is having issues with that area and the doctors who operated on her wouldn´t tell her anything and so she wanted to know if we could help her. I guess when she was having surgery, she was awake and her hands and legs were tied and she wanted to know if that was normal. My companion told her that is didn´think it was but she didn´t know and she told her at we were there to teach her the gospel and not to be her counselors. We then the lady looks at us kind of creepily and said that maybe we do know what happened to her but we can´t say. Since I can´t understand anything, I didn´t know what was going on but I sensed that she was off her rocker but after we left my companion told me everything she had said and I was shocked. So that is another person who thinks that we are spies.

the up side about not being able to understand is that I can make up really funny stories in my head as they are talking based on the words I pick up. Sometimes I am not to far off. The people here love to talk about everything and nothing all the same time.

Also this week we had a Noche de Hogar (family night) with Maria and her sister who is not a member. We hope to start teaching her sister but when we had the noche de hogar with them we literally didn´t say a word for an hour and a half. Her sister talked about all of her problems and stuff like that and Maria just talks about anything. So it was quite interesting. They are so hiliarious but it is really hard to teach them so we are going to be practicing on how we can cut in and bring the conversation back to our lessons.

Well yesterday at church crazy man came in and threated to light the church on fire so the police came and arrested him. He really needs help. He broke into the Bishop´s house and stole somethings last week. It is really sad but I hope that something can be done with him soon.

So I am sorry about the letter situation but I am writing today but it is way cheaper to send a large envelop with a lot of letters in it than a letter at a time so I will be needing you to put the letters for my friends in the mailbox so they can get them. There is just no time in the day to get everything done. We will be going down to Rosario on wednesday and thursday for me to get some more things down with my visa and we also hope to be moving this week sometime so it should be a crazy week. 

Well I love you all so much and I hope that your week is awesome!!!!! I love this gospel and the opportunity I have to spread it to the wonderfully crazy people here in Parana.

Lots of Love,

Alayna

What's Up Family!!! July 30,2012

Hola Familia,

 

It was great to get your e-mail Mom. It sounds like Sea World was a blast and its Exciting that Derek is now Offical!!! I am sorry that Dad couldn´t make it down but hopefully in four years.

So I love it here in Parana! It is so different and it really helps me realize how blessed I am. The people here are very friendly but they are all Catholic and they don´t want to change because they feel like they would be going against their family.

We have one man that we are teaching whose name is Nelson and he really knows that the church is true but he can´t get himself to stop being catholic and his wife has basically told him if he gets baptized that she will leave him. Its really sad because he is so amazing and he loves the gospel but his wife is just being selfish. We are going to continue to work with him and I hope that he will be able to get baptized soon.

So now I am going to tell you about some of the interesting things that have happened this week. One day when we were contacting, we stopped by this man who was working on his car and we introduced ourselves and he went off on how we were really spies for the American Government and we really just take down everyones information and give it to the government. It was hilarious! My companion tried to convince him otherwise but he wouldn´t have it. He was nice enough but when we left he still thought we were spies but he did say that he would check out the church sometime.

So our pench is pretty run down and we have rented a new pench but we can´t move in for about a month because they found out that the land lady had been stealing the electrical power from the meat store near by and so they have to re-wire the entire pench. So I will have a bucket shower for about another month and then I will have a some what normal shower again.

Yesterday at church a lady who just got bapized 4 days before I got here, got a calling to be the Relief Society secretary. Her name is Maria and she is super sweet but she will talk your ear off. When we have lessons with her she literally talks none stop for 50 minutes, no joke! She has some interesting thoughts but she loves the gospel and she is way excited about her calling.

Also yesterday we went to Evangelical Church. One of our investigators invited us and it was super weird! They pray and sing a ton and they have a full band to play the music. At the begining they had something like a testimony meeting where people would come up praise God by singing or saying stuff. I can´t understand any way so it was really hilarious. All of the women wear veils and the men and women are separated. It was quite interesting and I know even more now how blessed we are to be in the true church.

So this week we talked to some JWs here we call them testigos. They gave us a pamphlet that all it talked about was evolution and science. It had nothing religious in it what so ever! I don´t understand them at all but that is okay.

So this will be an interesting story. So there is someone in our ward who we call crazy man. He actually used to be the ward mission leader until about 4 months ago. He is skitsophrenic(or however you spell it) and so he was fine when he would take is medicine but about 5 months ago he started to mix his meds with drugs and he just kind of went crazy. He kicked his mother and sister out of the house that his mother owns and he has come to church a few times and threatened people with a fire extinguisher and he punched the stake president one time too. Now this was all before I got here and this past week some other things happened. Since he kicked his Mom and Sister out they have basically been in hiding. They come to church but he has no idea where they live because he may do something to them. So this week on saturday he basically took everything that was in the house and threw it into the street and so we got a call from is mom asking us to come and help her gather everything together and keep it in our pench until she could pick it all up. So we helped her and we asked her where her son was and she said she had the police take him. But here is the kicker, the police here are literally men in capes. Eventhough crazy man has thrown his mother out of her home, threatened people, assaulted the stake president and some other police and he also sell and does drugs and on saturday night he was mad at what his mother did so he lite the house on fire, they can´t arrest him because he is a skitsophrenic and so not in his right mind, supposedly, which is ridiculous because he knows what he is doing. It is really sad that basically he has to kill someone for them to finally arrest him. But don´t worry because for some reason he likes us has always been nice when we talk to him. This is such a strange country. It blows my mind. I would maybe like to visit again but I would never want to live here. They have a very corrupt government and people just do what they want.

Anyway, on a happier note, I am having such an amazing experience here and I am learning a ton. Hna. Tourtillott is hiliarious and we are always laughing at something that happens everyday. I have really seen the power of the Holy Ghost since I have been here and I may not understand the language but the people here have very strong testimonies and I can feel their love and their desire to follow Jesus Christ. I am excited to see waht happens this week.

I hope everyone has a great week! Enjoy the warm weather because I am freezing right now! It is so strange to be freezing in July!

Oh and it sounds cheesy but count your blessings! There are so many things that they don´t have here or don´t do here that I miss so much, like pepper(they only have salt here), peanut butter, cinnamon, pudding, cookies, fresh produce, flushable toliets, warm water, carpet, couches, insulated walls steak seasoning(I miss that so much), and a bunch of other stuff. Argentina is has its own charm but I am excited to come home and just lay on our carpeted floor.

I love you all so much and I can´t wait to hear from you next week!

Lots of Love,

Alayna

Hola from Parana!!!!!!!!!! July 23,2012

Hola Family!!!!!!

Well the past week has been quite the Adventure! I am still alive but for a while I didn´t think I would survive.

I guess I will give you the play by play. Here is goes........

So after I talked to you all in Dallas we boarded the plane and we sat there for a bit before the pilot came over the system and said that we would need to change planes because the was a not so good smell that was in the plane and the maintence had  to check it out. So we got off and had to wait until 10 o´clock that night to board a new plane and start off for Argentina. So I thought that we might meet up with our Elderes there but we didn´t. We were just with 6 other Elderes from the MTC that we had seen before. The plane ride was forever long and I hardly slept. We arrived in Buenos Aires at 10 in the morning on tuesday and it was really quite easy. We went through a quick check point and we gave them our Visas and then we met up with Aliberto, a guy who works for the church, and then we separated from the Elderes and they took me and Hna. Morgan to this van and guess who was there, Our Elderes!!!!!!!! It was weird to see them again but Awesome at the same time. They loved Alabama. So then that started our 5 hour car trip to Rosario. Now our driver didn´t speak English and we couldn´t understand him for anything!!! So after being really confused and stopping at a gas station and eating a ham sandwich and Coke,(My first and last Coke) we finally made it to the Mission Home. Presidente and Hermana Giuliani are super sweet and nice! We had my first home cooked meal in Argentina, it was really good! It was ravioli with a meat sauce and there was a ton of it! Then we had flan for dessert.

We slept over at the Mission home that night and then on wednesday morning we got our trainers. Before we found out who they were we saw two sisters getting dropped off and on was American and the other was a Native speaker. Elder Perkins turned to me and said that i would be getting the Native Speaker. I thought that I would as well but nope, I got Hermana Tourtillott!!!!! Quite the name right? Its French! She is awesome and she is from Kansas. She has been out for 8 months and she is basically fluent in Spanish. She just finished having a companion from Peru and so is is going to be able to teach me a lot.

Our area is in Parana and it is called Cinco Esquinas(Five Corners). We had to take another 4 hour bus ride to get here from Rosario. It is so strange to think that I live in Argentina! and I will be living here for the next 15 months!! It so crazy!!! Cinco Esquinas is a rather large area and some of our investigators live an hour away from our Pench(apartment). Walking! Okay now our pench is something else. The walls are concrete and we have no heating. We have a gas oven that looks like it could attack you and the word carpet doesn´t exist here. Oh and we have a Bucket Shower!!!!! When I first walked in Hna. Tourtillott asked me not to run away. I guess I looked that dumbfounded. I know that the living conditions here in Argentina aren´t like in the US but wow, it really humbles you. We we are contacting we knock on buildings that I swear we be condemned in the US. I have been extremly blessed to have grown up in the US.

Any who, we are over one ward but only 30 people come every sunday. I had to bear my testimony in church yesterday. It was quite nerve racking.

So basically I can´t understand a thing!!! They all talk super fast and so I am lost all of the time. I thought people in Texas talked a lot but nope, the people of Argentina have them beat! Hna Tourtillott just laughs at how confused I look as we are talking to people. But she is an awesome teacher and so I will be working super hard on learning the language.

I will have to tell you about all of the people that we are working with in the letter but they are quite interesting and have quite the history.

Well I hate to cut this short but I still need to write Presidente. I am so glad that everyone got down to Florida safely and that everything is Great!!! I will be writing a long letter! Promise! But I will probably be writing you on e-mail again before you get the letter. I love you all so much! Have a great week!

Lots of Love,

Alayna

 

p.s. My address is still the Mission Address. All of the mail has to go there so its the same as the one I gave you before I left.

p.p.s. I can´t believe Alexa is Engaged!!!!!!!!!!! Tell her congrats if you see her and give her my address so I can get and invite!

Adios to Texas! Monday July 16,2012

Hey Family!!!!!!!!

 

Right off the bat I will tell you that this is going to be the shortest e-mail ever. I will get to talk to you all so I can say everthing then. I can't believe that I am leaving Texas. I swear I just got here yesterday. I will miss Texas but I am super excited to be going to Argentina Finally!! Mom, I don't know if I will be able to call you between 2 and 4 but I know that we will be flying to some where else in the US first so I might be able to call you when we have our layover. Which might be around 5-7 maybe. I am sorry I can't be more definite. I don't know anything still. I guess I will find out when I go to the mission office at two.

I am excited that the trip is going great and I am excited to be able to talk to you. Have a blast in Nauvoo!!!!!!! I love you all soooooo much! Talk to you soon!!!

Lots of Love,

Alayna

 

p.s. yes Mom, when you write me in Argentina, don't put Hermana.